Digital colored images can be produced by electronic still cameras. Analog signals from an image sensor are converted into digital signals, processed, and combined with “metadata” (such as the date the picture was taken and camera settings) in a digital file. There are many storage devices on which these digital images can be stored, including floppy magnetic discs, magnetic hard disc drives, optical discs including write-once discs, digital tape, and Flash EPROM cards. Some digital cameras, such as the Kodak DC265 camera, allow audio to be recorded along with the digital images. The audio is stored as “metadata” within the digital image file. These images may later be downloaded to a host computer, viewed, and printed using a local printer, such as a color inkjet printer. The audio files may be played back as the images are reviewed on the camera's LCD display, or may be played as the images are later viewed on the user's desktop or portable computer.
In another approach to providing digital colored images, a photographic film is scanned, digitized and converted to a digital file corresponding to each film image. The Kodak PhotoCD™ system is an example of one such arrangement for scanning, digitizing, and providing a digital file for each image. Often, a user will have a service that will scan and digitize images to provide a digital file. These files are provided on a removable storage media, such as a Kodak PhotoCD disc. A user may also purchase software programs (application software) which operates on these image files. These applications permit the customer to access, view, modify, and/or print the image files as desired. Adobe Photoshop™ is an example of software that can operate on digital image files to drive a printer for producing output images. The applications that operate on the images to produce prints, such as Photoshop, are provided separately, rather than on the same PhotoCD disc that stores a customer's film images. As a result, it is difficult for an unskilled user to load the appropriate software into their host computer, launch the application (e.g. Photoshop) and then open the desired images from the PhotoCD, one at a time, in order to select and print images on their home printer.
An additional problem with capturing images on film is that there is currently no convenient method for providing audio with the images. It is possible to record audio information in a film camera, for example using the approach described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,501 to Bell, but this approach significantly increases the cost of the film camera and is not currently supported by photofinishers. It is also possible to store audio information for a single image as part of a picture frame, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,374 to Schwartz, or as part of a picture holder as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,365,686 to Scott, or as part of a photoalbum, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,519 to Manico et. al. However, all of these approaches require special equipment and none allow the recorded audio to be played back on a user's home computer or to be provided along with digital image files.
It is known to provide a CD containing both still image files and audio files, as described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,098 to Parulski et al., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. As shown in FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,098, the audio is recorded at the same time that the image files are recorded onto the CD. As a result, the user needs to provide a tape of audio information to the photofinisher for recording onto the CD as the images are scanned and recorded, or else the user needs to be present during the film scanning operation in order to record audio information. Both approaches are very inconvenient for the user. The CD described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,555,098 does not contain any enablement software of any type for recording audio at a later time.